Brain Burst Online
by Tusjecht
Summary: You face your wounds every day you fight in that body, and too many deaths result in your death in the real world. In this death game inside and out, when human nature reveals all its ugliness and PK-ers reign, can Kirito make it to Level 10 and clear the game? No OCs.
1. Prologue & Login

**A/N**: Completely AU at this point. What if Brain Burst is an MMO death game, and acceleration is left out for the moment? I own nothing but this story.

**== Prologue ==**

Above a moonscape reflecting the real-life Tokyo city, a castle floats in the sky.

The castle is named 'Aincrad', and the moonscape below is simply named 'Unlimited Field'.

The castle has ten floors, tapering to its narrowest at the top. But each one is huge. The bottom floor took a group of ten speed-type avatars to map completely, and the final calculation was 10 kilometres in diameter. Large enough to fit Setagaya County inside it. And the Unlimited Field beneath it is even larger, far too large to even see the borders. If any exist. Some have guessed it goes on to map the entirety of Japan, but no one had managed to see it for themselves.

Every player started from Level 1, and the Game Clear condition was to reach Level 10. Each player started with Burst Points, consumed by losing duels, dying, and other ways as well. If one's Burst Points reached zero, he will die a painful death by having his brain fried.

That is to say, this game is a death game. And it has been going on for three years now.

The name of this game- is «Brain Burst Online»

**== Login ==**

The time is 12.55pm.

I sighed deeply in the simple wooden chair once more. _"So close, yet so far,"_ was the one coherent thought I could discern amid the butterflies in my stomach; After all, today was the day that the revolutionary Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online game, _Brain Burst Online_ is being released to huge fanfare. I looked up from my magazine to the computer screen; the livecast showed a group of teenagers, one not much older than myself and sporting a gaudy bandanna, waving his copy of the game at the camera.

Turning my attention back to the magazine, I flicked past a few full-page advertisements, barely listening to the high-pitched trill of the livecast speaker. Stopping on a well-thumbed page, I gazed at the image of the man seated calmly, his sandy hair cut short and spiked in front.

This was the man behind everything. The next-generation of virtual reality that had taken a huge leap from 3D images to another world. Kayaba Akihiko, the man who invented Full Diving _and _the equipment needed to use it: the Nerve Gear.

I looked over at the steel-gray helmet resting on my pillow, with a conspicuous wire running from its back to the side, and into the high-speed optical outlet installed in the wall. The Nerve Gear helmet, the only piece of equipment required to play FullDive. The butterflies in my stomach seemed to be mollified by the mere sight of it, even. But then again, it is because that helmet is the gateway to _my _world.

The time is 12.59pm. I can't wait any longer.

Thumbing the screen of the computer to stand by, I extracted the game disc from its case and slapped it into the side of the Gear. Lying down on my bed, I quickly placed it over my head, letting the half-visor cover just enough light from the window, but can still see the digital clock on the side. I felt around with my left hand for a bit on the low desk next to the bed, and found what I was looking for: a bottle of water and some light snacks, enough for a two, maybe three-minute break between Dives.

"Kazuto, I'm going for practice! See ya later!"

That is my younger sister, Kirigaya Suguha. She's just a little younger than me by about two years. Sugu, as I like to call her, goes for kendo training thrice a week. She is fit, that is for sure. Fitter than me in the real world, and as a swordswoman maybe.

But in the world I am about to enter, I am the strongest swordsman. In that world, I am_ the_ swordsman.

The digital clock changes to 13.00. The wait is over, and I close my eyes. There is darkness for a moment.

"Link start!"

Nothing...

Black space turned white.

The login screen appeared, and I quickly logged on. Then, a new window appeared:

**Beta Test Character Data detected in Savefile. Use? Y/N**

Without hesitating, I hit Y on the virtual keyboard. The screen flashed and disappeared.

Why do I have this data? It is because, two months ago, the 'Accel Assault Online Closed Beta' was held. For two months, a hundred people received the game for free, and had to do all sorts of tests. Skills mechanics, testing for environmental glitches, any possible methods to 'farm' and gain Burst Points quickly. Most people did those, and all of us were paid a token sum of 1000 yen each.

What I did, though, was to Dive everyday for those two months, revelling in the speed and power I didn't have in the real world. In that world, I was the 'Black Swordsman.' A humanoid avatar with an all black coat that wielded a single one-handed sword. Yet, with that one blade, I had climbed all the way up from Level 1 to Level 4, and received the permission to exit the floating castle of Aincrad and able to teleport to the Unlimited Field some twenty kilometres below us. Unfortunately, by then it was two months, and I did not have enough time to explore that map.

The view cleared, and faded to black. My senses returned, and I regained the feeling of having my eyes shut, as they were when I initially Dive. Slowly, I blinked, and opened my eyes to a bright daylight scene.

Cobblestoned pavement, baked brown by the sun. A large fountain in the middle of the plaza, with incredibly detailed water droplets splashing around in it. I held up my right hand and clenched it: the pure black wrist parts rasped with metallic sounds and followed my every command.

In front of me, several pillars of light spawned and faded. More avatars appeared, in various colours, shapes, and types. I glance at the health gauge in the upper left corner of my vision as a last confirmation:

**Black Swordsman**

**HP: 1000/1000**

**SP: 0%**

I pumped my fist once.

"I...I am back in this world!"

**tbc.**

Author's drabble:

That's all for the moment. I'm sticking to the anime events of SAO for awhile, before I bring in the Accel World mechanics in the next chapter. I will note at the beginning whenever I'm referring to LN content as the basis.


	2. Tutorial

**A/N:** This chapter still follows SAO. For reference, it's Kirito's first day back in the game.

**Tutorial**

The Starting City is located in the First Floor's centre, and the Central Plaza was in the City's centre. So it is not an exaggeration to say that at this moment, I am standing in the centre of Aincrad's First Floor.

This floating castle of steel, earth, and stone, was named such, for **An** **Inc**arnating **Rad**ius. While my English is limited to simple phrases and game terminology, I know that 'Incarnating' means 'to make real', and 'Radius' is a length of a perfect circle. Thus, Aincrad would literally be named as "A Place where unreal things are made real." And it truly lives up to its name. The Nerve Gear lets me see as though I was actually in the game world, touch as though my hand is actually touching it, and even eat.

All around me, more blue pillars of light were flashing and various avatars stepped out of them. Dyed in flashy colours and strapped with exotic body parts, it seemed less fitting to call them players, but rather, 'Mechas'.

Duel avatars - the virtual body in my world.

All players first had to chose an offensive affinity when they first created their character. There were three primary types: Long Range Combat, Close Range Combat, and Indirect Techniques. They were then placed on a colour wheel, so that Red colours use the first type, Blue colours are of the second type, and Yellow avatars are the ones that use Indirect attacks. As for White and Black, I skipped over the former while making my avatar. In any case, Black, the colour belonging to "Specialised techniques", appealed much more to me intimately. For this reason, I was allowed to take up a sword, normally a Blue-type, but sacrificed my defence heavily in favour of agility. Green, Purple, and Orange, the secondary colours resulting, resulted in a mix of traits from their primary colours. The colour word the user selected determines the range of weaponry and equipment available to them after this step.

Then there are also metal colours, ranked by their value, that bestow special defence affinities. The precious metals on one end are immune to heat, poison, cutting, piercing, acid, and other exotic attacks. The common metals on the other end of the scale offer high resistance to physical blows and blunt attacks. Just like the other colours available on the colour wheel, neither of these traits interested me.

The second word in our avatar's name is supposed to reflect our attack style, and hence I used "Swordsman." However, most others use it to place their IGN (In-Game Name) inside. Of course it results in a unique name, but when meeting another avatar for the first time, trying to read something like "Shadow Bladerunner2000" was meaningless for information.

But undeniably, every avatar is different. The number of options per body part can run into the hundreds, depending on how you customised your avatar - meaning to say, the number of possible avatars can easily reach infinity. Simple mathematics would result in a very large number if one tried to attempt a calculation.

But in the Central Plaza, I saw the opposite happening - many blue and green avatars were appearing, and wielding heavy equipment like greatswords, shields, and the odd red avatar walking around would have a wickedly long rifle slung behind them. Obviously, people were making what they wanted to be, but it was fine by me.

Anyway, it was said too, that with only ten thousand copies of Brain Burst Online handed out, and the soft copies online having been sold out in seconds, the logical deduction was that everyone here were hardcore gamers who had been waiting for the very moment it was put on sale. Such gamers, like me, more or less knew what kind of avatar they wanted to make already. Hence, the avatar design process, normally taking as long as two hours if one was extra meticulous, was being rushed and cut down into a few minutes. But it was understandable, because the beauty of this world is simply worth far more than the wait.

In the interview, Kayaba said specifically that ten thousand copies of Brain Burst Online were being sold. While the Central Plaza was probably able to hold that many avatars, with a mere ten minutes having passed since the servers were opened, the Plaza was getting uncomfortably crowded. With no other event ongoing for the moment, I turned on the point of my heel and sprinted for the City's gates.

The City is designed like a spider's web - with the Plaza at the centre, the largest buildings fan out from there outwards, shrinking in size and height until one reaches the boundaries. Demarcated by a tall wall thrice the height of even the tallest avatar one can possibly make, the boundaries separate the Safe Area inside the City from the Hostile Area outside. Mobs of huge Enemies roam the walls outside, kept back by stout NPC guards that easily match the strength of Level 4 players. Sometimes, the Enemies _might_ overrun the guards and necessitate an evacuation...thankfully, I had only witnessed such an event once before.

As I dashed by one more dull storefront, I suddenly heard a loud voice call out from the din of avatars behind me.

"Heeey! You there!"

Digging my heel into the ground, I came to halt and turned around. A fuschia-coloured avatar waved to me some fifty metres back, his eye lenses upturned in a cheerful expression. This player too was running after me with longer, more loping strides, and soon he was in my face, and a full head taller at that.

"Will," He panted, apparently out of breath. "Will you teach me a few things?"

This took me completely by surprise.

"Cuz, ya know," He gestured at me. "You run pretty fast, as though you're already used to this game."

"Well...I suppose I can. Is this your first time playing a VRMMORPG*?"

"Yup. I mean, just look around you...didn't you feel the first time, that this is another world and not just a game? I still have that kind of 'first day' feelings."

I thought to myself a little: to get a newbie to learn and familiarise himself with the menu and options would take twelve minutes. Practising them would take ten, but levelling up to two would take _three hours._ Brain Burst Online was the kind of game that focused less on grinding and more on the aesthetics of the virtual world, and that was what allowed it to get away with such a steep mastery curve.

"...alright then, I'll teach you. We'll go over to the gate there to leave the city-"

"ALRIGHT!"

The fuschia avatar's yell of elation drowned out the rest of my words.

[...]

As it turned out, the fuschia avatar was named _Fuschia_ _Kurein_. Whatever 'kurein' was supposed to be, it certainly didn't sound like anything Japanese nor English. Kurein, as it turned out, had a single curved sword equipped, which was rather unusual for his reddish-colour. His armour also was styled more like that of a samurai warrior, with the cheap-looking shoulder guards and wooden strips of armour.

Kurein was sprawled on the ground, exhausted at finally having killed his first Enemy - a small Wild Boar. After countless tries, Kurein had finally activated his move, a curved sword skill, and cut through the Boar with an orange flash of light. All the exhilaration after finally activating his skill showed with the ear-to-ear grin on his face, despite lying on the grassy plains where we were training.

"So Kurein...congratualations on your first victory!"

But just as Kurein raised a fist to celebrate, I poured the cold water on him.

"But that Enemy - a small fry really, is only about as hard as slimes in other games. Bigger Enemies sometimes can kill the Guard NPCs at the Starting City."

"Ehh?! Bu-bu-but, I thought it was like some semi-boss or something!"

"Not a chance."

Kurein hung his head and his sword fell to the ground with a muted _clang_. If his avatar had lips, I could almost visualise him pouting like a little kid. I stood up in the meantime to sheathe my one black sword on my back, and looked over the scenery.

It had taken longer than I thought; the time was now 5.50pm, and soon I would have to stop for dinner. But not in a long time have I felt this _good_ - it felt good to take someone under my wing, to teach them the laws of this world.

"Ah...Blackie, how much grinding is there in this game again?"

"Um...it depends. For quick learners, it could take hours to advance to the next Level, if they found good monsters to fight. But for you...nah, you're not Levelling Up anytime soon."

"Not anytime soon?"

Kurein parroted my words, his face quickly becoming a mask of disappointment.

"Not anytime soon."

Kurein flopped onto the ground again.

"...argh!"

And just like that, he bounced up and onto his feet in a flourish. His mood truly changed like a little kid...

"Then, tomorrow I'll be back to slaughter a dozen of them! No, a hundred! A thousand! I'll clear every mob on this floor if I have to!"

"..tomorrow?"

"I've got a pizza and ginger ale delivered to my house for dinner in five minutes, yeah!"

"...alright then. D'you want to..."

But Kurein was already manipulating his menu deftly, only half-listening.

"I'll see ya tomorrow!"

There was a slight pause. I turned around and prepared to look for a safe area to logout, but-

"Eh?"

A strangled gasp of surprise came form Kurein. Whipping around, I turned to see him staring into space, or rather his menu.

"There...there's no logout button?"

**tbc.**

Author's notes:

Sorry for the short chapter here. I'm a little pressed for time, having to wash my stuff and more stuff.


End file.
